Global Interoperability Consortium to Demonstrate Unique Use of Cloud Computing for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Global Interoperability Consortium to Demonstrate Unique Use of Cloud
Computing for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
PR Newswire
WASHINGTON, March 28, 2013
WASHINGTON, March 28, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --The Network Centric
Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC) has awarded $350,000 to the Cycle One
team led by NJVC and members including Boeing, The Aerospace Corporation and
Open Geospatial Consortium. Together they will create a cloud infrastructure
to support a concept proposed by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
(NGA): namely, can cloud computing deliver services to non-traditional NGA
users?
The project is designed to demonstrate the interoperability and movement of
data in an open-cloud-based demonstration. NGA will provide unclassified data
that supports a scenario depicting the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. NCOIC's
foundational model is based on a series of successful lab interoperability
demonstrations, also based on Haiti, it conducted four times during 2010.
While one commercial cloud served as a data-transport vehicle during the 2010
lab demonstrations, the NGA work would put a number of clouds in the center of
the action, thereby enabling the ever-expanding population of global cloud
users, including emergency responders, to post their "eyewitness" views of
what's happening where they are.
The effort will unfold in two cycles. Cycle One is a three-to-four month
effort to define and build the cloud infrastructure, with the Cycle One team
leading and implementing the effort. The NCOIC develops contract capabilities
with its entire membership providing guiding principles based on the "voice of
industry" consensus process. Cycle Two will commence with additional
contractual efforts, when the Cycle One work is completed.
Cycle Two will bring in the "actors." Actors will be member companies plugging
into the cloud and using the geospatial data to activate unique, sometimes
proprietary, applications that demonstrate end-user capabilities. An example
of potential end-user capability could be rescue workers, firefighters,
hospital personnel or even bankers trying to reconstitute a financial system.
Member companies' imaginations will determine the selection of actors.
The work falls under the auspices of Tip Slater, NCOIC director of business
development, and Chuck MacDonough, NCOIC NGA program manager. Both will employ
NCOIC processes that ensure consistency with the contract's objectives and the
neutral working environment required by the U.S. Office of Management and
Budget's A119 regulation.
"Governments have spent billions on satellites that can locate objects on
Earth, and those systems give us very reliable data about the latest
situations on the ground," Slater said. "But why shouldn't we encourage the
Web community to contribute their own views of the reality they see every hour
of every day? Clouds offer the global reach for data storage, retrieval and
survivability that could help NCOIC validate this work on behalf of NGA."
Cycle One team member contributions include:
oNJVC: Team leader for the project; designing, implementing and managing a
federated cloud environment that provides baseline infrastructure services
to participating NCOIC member companies
oBoeing: Geoservices through a Boeing-developed set of capabilities via its
OpenGeo software
oOpen Geospatial Consortium: Expertise to monitor, offer advice and report
on the use of OGC standards throughout the demonstration period
oThe Aerospace Corporation: An OpenStack-based cloud and a virtual
organization management system patterned after the one used by the
Worldwide Large Hadron Collider Computing Grid
About NGA
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is the nation's primary source of
geospatial intelligence, or GEOINT for the Department of Defense and the U.S.
Intelligence Community. As a DoD combat support agency and a member of the IC,
NGA provides GEOINT, in support of U.S. national security and defense, as well
as disaster relief. GEOINT is the exploitation and analysis of imagery and
geospatial information that describes, assesses and visually depicts physical
features and geographically referenced activities on the Earth.
https://www1.nga.mil/Pages/default.aspx
About NCOIC
The Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium's core capability is
enabling interoperability among and between domains such as aerospace, civil
and military operations, air traffic management, health care and more. NCOIC
is a global not-for-profit organization with an eight-year history of
developing world-class skills and tools that help its members and customers to
operate effectively across diverse global market sectors and domains. For more
information, visit www.ncoic.org
Note to editors: NCOIC's 2010 interoperability demonstrations included eight
consortium members working collaboratively across the Atlantic. They linked 10
industry labs to prove that all could share -- in real time -- a common
operating picture of the Haitian crisis. They developed and used a technical
and operational framework that enabled disparate systems and people to
communicate across national and corporate cultures. Their collaboration
resulted in time, cost and risk savings. For more information go to
https://www.ncoic.org/technology/deliverables/resources/lab_interop/
SOURCE Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium
Website: http://www.ncoic.org